An almost weekly update of environmental news, particularly marine updates, with occasional splatters of transportation, indigenous, ideas of sustainability and sustainable development from around the world.

26.3.07

Dialect Clash?

TAIPEI - Taiwan plans to abandon its long-standing policy of recognisingMandarin as the island's only official language, Premier Su Tseng-changsaid yesterday in a move that would likely anger rival China.

Mr Su said the Cabinet is examining a draft for a National LanguageDevelopment Act to promote the use of local dialects and prohibitlinguistic discrimination.

"Taiwan is a plural society and all languages should have equal standingand be respected and supported," Mr Su said, indicating an intention toconfer equal status on the Taiwanese dialect - Fukienese, as well asHakka.

Such a move would likely be denounced by Beijing, which regards Taiwan aspart of its territory and opposes any efforts by the island's leadershipto loosen cultural and other bonds.

Mandarin has been Taiwan's official language since 1949, when the ChineseNationalist Government lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan toset up its government-in-exile.

Mr Chiu Chuang-liang, director of the Cabinet's council for CulturalPlanning and Development, told Parliament that under the revised LanguageDevelopment Bill, Taiwan will stop defining Mandarin - the lingua francaof China - as the "national language".

Instead, it will list Mandarin, Fukienese, Hakka and Taiwan's aboriginaltongues as its national languages, Mr Chiu said. He denied that scrappingMandarin as the national language is part of Taipei's policy of disowningChinese influence but to protect endangered languages.

"United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization haslisted Taiwan's aboriginal languages as facing extinction. So theamendment is to protect different languages and to make them equal," hesaid.

Mr Su's announcement is consistent with recent efforts to distance Taiwanfrom mainland China in the run-up to this December's legislative electionsand next year's presidential poll.

The push for independence has become more stark under the leadership of MrChen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party, which took over fromthe Kuomintang Nationalist Party in 2000.